The following review takes place between whenever I typed it and whenever you decided to read it.
Television is an entity that is constantly evolving in order to properly provoke the kind of emotion that hooks a person into watching a show religiously. Videogames, of course, have always tried this course of action; multitudes of different ideas come across the GamersMark desks each day. Well sometimes a show’s producers attempt to synergize across the board and don’t produce the intended effect. I still have nightmares about Alias to this day. In the case of 24: The Game however, it is a different story. The people over at 2k Games have brought a myriad of different tested game types into a well-established and loved world, then they added a story complex enough to fill a season of the show itself, finally they were able to scan and record the actors themselves. All of the elements together make an explosive title that actually kept me on the edge of my seat.
For those of you that aren’t familiar with the show, 24 follows the exploits of the Los Angeles Counter Terrorism Unit (CTU) and more often that not follow Jack Bauer; a rough and tough agent that tends to follow his own rules to make the world a safer place. Each one hour show represents an hour in a 24 episode season/day and the tension builder of the show is that it’s played in real-time (which the game aims to accomplish as well). This particular season/game rewinds us to 2003, a year where we thought the actual president screwed up enough to warrant replacement in the coming election and in the world of 24 Jack Bauer just saved the West Coast from a nuclear bomb. The game takes place between Seasons 2 and 3. Jack true to form is having one of the worst days of his life.
For the most part the storyline allows you to see the points of view from everyone involved good or bad, this way you have the maximum amount of tension squeezed in there. In the game however we almost never get to see what the bad guys are doing save for the bit of time that Chase is undercover with them. Save for that the story has everything you’ve come to expect of 24 and it is a great reason to give the game a spin.
It is the variety which allows 24 to work as a show and in this case as a game. You start out with one of the CTU agents on foot in 3rd person shooter mode chasing down suspects or catching/killing terrorists. Then as you need to go somewhere else in LA you just hop in your car Driver style and go where it is you need to go or chase whomever you need to chase. Meanwhile back at CTU headquarters you find some piece of equipment that needs hacking which allows you to play one of about 5-6 mini games (my favorite being a Simon Says’ish computer hacking game. Then your back to Jack and you track down another suspect where you get to play an interrogation mini game trying to get info.
Most of it is a lot of fun. The 3rd person shooter sequences feel nice and polished although it would be nice to be able to restrain the person I just knocked to the ground before they got up to get some more. The mini games made me feel like I was in the seat of the CTU computer agents which was a lot of fun. The driving missions are entertaining for the most but what I didn’t care for is that save for when I was driving the highways of LA I felt like I was driving at a snails pace. Enemies are flying by me trying to apprehend me or kill me and I feel like I’m chugging along like the little engine who could. Every now and again while you are on foot you get thrown a stealth mission. More often than not because of getting caught it switched into yet another shoot-em-up mission which made it much more enjoyable for me. So take that for what it’s worth.
The graphics are fairly impressive in the game as well. The video sequences show full motion video captures of recurring stars like Keifer Sutherland and Elisha Cuthbert (she’s almost just as hot in 3D) and the lip synching is top notch here. The computer screen animations are also very eye-catching (the mini game where I had to locate snipers in a city block comes to mind). Also like in the television show different screens will pop onto your existing view showing you pertinent information regarding the level you are playing or the location of an enemy you are tracking or trying to avoid; it is very cool indeed.
The look of the 3rd person shooter levels is fairly decent in comparison. You have enough detail to make out the clothing and basic movements of most characters with a little extra of course being given to your main characters however no mouth movements to speak of or anything extra to differentiate from other shooters there. Also in the driving levels, the design of the vehicles is very generic, almost as if it were done on an early PS2 or even a late PSX design. Understandable Jack’s Ford Explorer or the enemies Range Rover’s do not look like them and the fact that there is about 6-7 vehicle types on the road do not help in the age of GTA: San Andreas.
Sound in this game is a driving force. First of all it is nice to see a continuing trend where video media translation to game is top notch. The main characters involved in seasons two and three reprise their roles with great enthusiasm which really drives the urgency home that games like this so desperately need. Along with the 24 theme by Sean Callery being masterly reproduced and the sound effects of the clock ticking you feel like you are living in the world of the show.
Control varies for different game types. For your shooter sequences you lock onto your target with your L1 and fire with R1 which is nice considering how loose the analog stick tends to be. The driving sequences are inspired by Driver and GTA of course with different puzzles taking advantage of analog sensitivity or button pressing-speed.
My biggest complaint about the game is within the driving part of it. Sometimes I would push as hard as I could on my accelerator button and for the most part it felt like I wasn’t going anywhere at all. Specifically I can think of a level where I needed to escape from a military facility in a Jeep along with my partner. The damn Jeep felt like it wasn’t moving at all! In order to make it up some of the ramps I needed to tap on the accelerator and hug the inside curves of the track which was unheard of. I needed to replay said level in excess of ten times! One ramp in particular I would get to the top only to have the engine stop working and I would slide back down said ramp only to be shot to the point where I would explode! This is the only sore point for me in an otherwise stellar game.
At this point I’d like to stop and say that I was so enthralled by this game so much that I sat down at three in the afternoon to start it for the first time and ended up getting up at three in the morning after beating it! I just couldn’t stop much like purchasing one of the show’s seasons on DVD. I do have a question though; where exactly are all those special features I unlocked during play? They are not on the main menu, nor are they on the game menu. Save for the curious disappearance of extras the game is a nice addition to my shelf. For fans of the show this is a must buy no doubt! For those fans of similar television spy shows or games give this one a shot. Who knows, maybe you can keep the world safe from terrorism too.
